Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Thomas Was Alone (Vita)

It isn’t often that I invest in indie
games, mainly because I’m not only interested in a lot of big budget titles,
but I also have a large backlog of games in my library that I could potentially
review at any time. I also don’t see the need to invest in every single indie
game that people praise because, again, my priorities are different. For these
reasons, I mainly obtain indie games cheaply through Humble Bundles or for free
via my PlayStation Plus subscription, although occasionally I’ll gladly invest
fully in a title that I really want to play such as Journey. It was my
PlayStation Plus subscription that allowed me to access the critically
acclaimed Thomas Was Alone on both my PS3 and Vita, though I opted to play it
on my Vita due to having a lot of time on a recent trip. Within the couple
hours it took me to play through all 100 levels, I could see how it would be
heavily praised, but at the same time I didn’t feel as connected to it as
others did and I felt unsure that I would have spent $10 on it.

Thomas Was Alone is about an AI named
Thomas who finds himself alone in a test chamber. As he keeps going up and to
the right, he runs into more AIs, including Chris, who doesn’t like that Thomas
can jump higher than him. As the AIs meet each other and eventually form a
group of seven, each with their own personalities and abilities, they all find
out the truth about their situation and learn about a world outside of their
own.

Thomas' story is also self-referential.

The story is what is most heavily
praised about Thomas Was Alone and I can see why. It does a very good job of
giving unique traits and characterization to a group of minimalist rectangles.
Danny Wallace’s narration certainly helps in keeping the player interested in
what the story has to say and can add a humorous tone to the script. However, I
didn’t really find myself completely invested in the characters throughout the
game, though I did find myself caring more once the game took a tonal shift in
the latter half in a story that seems otherwise unconnected to Thomas’, like a
sequel that never got made but was put in anyway to get the level count up to
100. I thought about why this was for a minute and I think I’ve figured it out.
One part of it is that minimalist games about isolation and companionship,
mostly on the theme of love, are so prevalent on Kongregate that it’s become a
running joke in both comments and even game titles. As a result, it felt a
little like I was playing a game with similar themes, except that developer
Mike Bithell was asking for money.

The other aspect is the humor, which
sometimes felt like it was trying a little hard to be funny by way of including
what I saw as a list of things that would make geeks laugh, including
references to Transformers and Nathan Fillion (not Nathan Fillion in any
particular role, just Nathan Fillion the actor (maybe that reference is aimed
at Browncoats?)). To me, these references also took away from the game’s
ability to be timeless. To clarify, I loved it when South Park: The Stick of Truth made references to pop culture icons like Facebook/Twitter and Skyrim or
timely references to current events like Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Tacos and
the infamously faulty Obamacare website (I’ll stop right there) because South
Park has pretty much always been timely about what they have commentary about,
so it felt natural for the game to also be a product of its time. With Thomas
Was Alone however, I felt that because of the nature of the game, it should
have been more timeless, but because they decided to try and get geeks and
hardcore gamers to laugh at their references, including two for dead memes, the
game became an unintentional period piece and will thus be more of a time
capsule that won’t be as appealing to newcomers down the line. But this is just
my opinion and you do not necessarily have to agree with it.

While the story didn’t draw me in as
much as it did for others, the gameplay is what really kept me going. Each of
the seven-plus characters has a unique size and special ability, which may need
to be used in tandem in order to reach the level goal. As the levels get
progressively complex, it’s good that they keep things fresh every so often,
like introducing a new character or gameplay element such as floating colors
that can change someone’s power upon touching it. Though a level from time to
time felt a little annoying to complete, I liked having to keep thinking about
the world around me to find a way to the exit. The platforming is very solid
and tight, although I did run into a couple of technical issues. The Vita
version presents multiple ways to switch between characters, since you can use
the L and R buttons, hold your finger or thumb on the bottom right corner of
the screen and scroll between available characters or tap the touchscreen in
the general direction or exact position of the character you wish to use next.
I ended up using all three options at some point or another, since the levels
can get really complex, but personally I found the touch screen to be a little
sensitive, since I would occasionally lightly tap the screen by accident and
end up controlling a character I hadn’t planned to use at that moment; In the
wrong situation this would end up undoing a bit of progress. I’d blame this
more on how the controls were applied to the Vita as opposed to the Vita
itself, since this does in a way show off just how responsive the system’s
touchscreen is. In any case, try to keep your thumbs away from the Vita screen
if you can unless you plan on playing that way anyway.

One of the game's more complex puzzles (it's a little harder than it looks).

As more of a side note, there is a bit
of replay value present in the form of collectibles that are very well hidden
throughout each chapter of the story. If you miss one, you can simply select
any of the 100 levels at will from the main menu. This would also help a player
if they are shooting for a particular score on the leaderboard.

I suppose the last thing to mention
would be the graphics and sound. For a minimalist game, the graphics are very
good with a great color choice and incredible lighting and shadow work. On a
couple of occasions however, the shadows actually worked against me since a
combination of specific background colors, character colors and shadows could
actually cause the darker colored characters to become nearly invisible. On the
subject of sound, the effects were well-chosen, though I did recognize some
sounds from other games, and the subtle score was a good choice, as it enhances
the mood without drawing too much attention to itself.

Thomas Was Alone is a game worth trying
out, although I didn’t like it as much as other people did. The story is
interesting, though not thoroughly compelling, and the jokes may be funny to
some but end up turning the game into a time capsule instead of aiding its
potential timelessness. On the other hand, the platforming is very good at stretching
the mind in figuring out how to make characters with more specialized abilities
work together to reach the end goal. If you’re curious about trying it out,
then by all means do so, but I would recommend trying to get it through a
future Humble Bundle if able or for free through PlayStation Plus (as of this
writing, it’s still one of the free titles in the Instant Game Collection). It’s
a game that will appeal to many, but the $10 price point may not feel completely
worth it for everyone.